Great efforts have been devoted to fishing lure design. Various objectives and advantages have been pursued, for example to provide particular lure movement or lure component movement, to advantageously reflect attractive light, to impart sound to the surrounding water, to travel in appealing paths during retrieval, and the like.
Similarly, much attention has been focused upon the engineering of fishing line. Different materials have been developed, as have different sizes, strengths, flexibilities, and colors.
Unfortunately, not enough ingenuity has been trained upon the connection by which such fishing lures are connected to such fishing lines. A typical device for connecting a lure to a fishing line has been a snap or a swivel snap. Both are notorious for coming undone during use, thereby losing lures and losing hooked fish. Moreover, the geometric configurations of snap and swivel snap connectors, such as those aspects that allow such connectors to be removed from lures, either require bulkier structures to provide adequate strength or sacrifice strength if greater lure action is sought by use of more delicate structures. Furthermore, both snaps and swivel snaps are difficult and time consuming to install in lures, particularly in lures that require such connectors to be threaded through two holes. For example, with blade baits and with bladed swim jigs, fishing line is connected to the blade member rather than to another connection feature of the lure. A blade bait contains a blade, weight attached to the blade, and a hook attached to the blade and a bladed swim jig carries a blade upon a weighted hook; with both, the action of the blade is engineered to attract fish. Snaps and swivel snaps are very difficult to attach to blade baits and to bladed swim jigs.
Another, alternative connector has been the split ring. However, the split ring's configuration leaves it even more difficult and time consuming to install than a snap or a swivel snap, especially to a lure in which the connector must be passed through two holes in the blade. Furthermore, with split rings, the lure is retrieved on two overlapped rings, which limits the action of the lure. Additionally, under sufficient load during lure retrieval, one ring of a split ring may slip relative to the other, which may cause inconsistent lure action. Moreover, with round split rings, either the line or the connection feature of the lure can get stuck in the split between the rings, also causing inconsistent lure action, or the lure connection feature can shift back and forth across the terminal ends of the split ring, likewise causing inconsistent lure action.
Traditional fishing lure line connectors are designed to allow removal of the lure from the connector without cutting the fishing line. Such functionality has advantages in some circumstances. However, provision of that functionality requires configurations that must trade between less restraint in lure action and greater strength—enhancing one diminishes the other. Provision of that functionality may, therefore compromise the primary purpose of fishing lures: unfettered lure performance in catching fish. Connector mechanisms that allow release of the lure from the connector weaken the connector, requiring bulkier structural dimensions to counteract such weakness, but bulkier structural dimensions hamper lure performance, such as by constricting lure action. Such mechanisms also provide more opportunity for failure during use. Moreover, modern fishing techniques, particularly those used in competitive fishing, presuppose that the line will be quickly cut when lure replacement is desired, rather than manipulation of a release contrivance to remove the lure, predominant priority being placed on lure performance in catching fish instead of on avoiding cutting the fishing line.
Traditional fishing lure line connectors also have failed to conceive that the connection by which a lure is attached to a fishing line can affect the aerodynamic efficiency of the lure during flight through the air as it cast and thus have also failed to discover that the fishing lure line connector might be configured so as to minimize the aerodynamic drag of the cast lure.
What is needed is a fishing lure line connector that overcomes the foregoing shortcomings. The connector should be relatively easy to install quickly in a lure. It should allow unimpeded movement of the lure as the lure is retrieved through water. The connector's design should be intrinsically strong, allowing minimized dimensions for the connector. And, ideally, the connector should allow for aerodynamically streamlined flight of the lure during casting.